As well as her role with DAY, Paula has also volunteered for a number of other events including for the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) as a Communicator.

She also volunteered at the 2015 Irish Open in Royal County Down , the Tall Ships, World Police and Fire Games, and she will be volunteering for the upcoming Gran Fondo Giro D’Italia this coming Sunday.

As part of her role with Action on Hearing Loss, the 30-year-old also befriends an 80-year old woman from Drumaness, who lives on her own and admits to Paula that she gets lonely.

"You can see she’s so glad when you arrive, and she asks ‘are you coming back next week?’ Her health is bad, she can’t walk well so I can’t take her out, but just sitting there having a chat, makes all the difference to her.

"I bring her the local paper; she used to do that but can’t do it anymore. She doesn’t really have much family contact, she never married and has no children, so really appreciates having me round, she tells me stories about her youth, how she started work when she was 14.”

Paula says volunteering has also helped her personally, improving her confidence and language skills

“Just being able to speak to lots of different people, I used to get quite nervous, but I’m much less phased now – although obviously it depends who it is.

“My signing skills have really improved too, and my own deaf awareness. You do get more contact with deaf people, being out with different people who sign, you still learn something from them, if they’re older for example they may have some different signs.

"It’s great to see the reaction of BSL users who weren’t expecting me to sign and then see I can communicate with them, the change in their facial expression is great. Although they know I’m not an interpreter they still really appreciate the signing I can do.

“All in all it has really helped my confidence; it has really helped me see other things I can do. It has helped me realise all the things I can do. If I hadn’t volunteered I wouldn’t have developed these skills and this confidence and do more, try more.

"It can help give you a really good idea of where you can go; it gives you a taster for things. Like in Action on Hearing Loss, there are so many different types of volunteer roles, so you can try different things and see if you like them.”